Time To Start Mowing the Yard Again

The birds are chirping.  Flowers are blooming.  Pollen is in the air.  The live oak trees are shedding their leaves and quickly replacing with new growth.  Spring has arrived.  I would say that grass is growing, but it is not really grass.  Not yet.  First weeds grow in the yard.  A weed in this case is anything but St. Augustine grass.  Lots of people buy Weed and Feed which will kill the weeds in your yard while providing food for your real grass.  Those weeds, however, have a purpose.  The cows will absolutely devour them.

Before I mow, I'll let the cows mow the grass.  We do this each and every year like clockwork.  I have a Gallagher Solar Fence charger and a reel full of wire rope.  It carries a charge and has gained the respect of the cows.  I simply set it up in the yard with step in posts and bring the cows from the pasture and into the yard.  They look forward to this each year, believe it or not.

Harnessing the Power of the Sun

Clarabelle has found a tall patch of weeds growing near the air conditioning units.  She'll mow that all down in short order.  You can see the strand of electric fencing to the right of her head.  The cows, while certainly respecting the "pop" they get if they touch the electric fence, have figured out just how far they can go without getting popped.  You'll see them craning their necks way under the strand of fencing to get to some fresh grass.  Pay particular attention to the grass in the photo below as this is the "before" shot.

Here you can see Luna running to a patch of White Dutch Clover.  That is the cows' favorite.  They'll eat all of that first and then eat the other stuff.  White Dutch Clover is like Alaskan King Crab Legs at a buffet line.

This, my friends, is the "after" shot.  The cows have really cleaned up the yard!  They mowed down the tall grass.

I took this picture so you can see the difference between where the cows ate versus where I had the yard cordoned off by the electric fence.  If you look at the bottom left of the picture and run a diagonal line to the top right, you can trace out where the cows grazed.  I had to block them from the fruit trees as I've learned from previous years that they'll eat the leaves and break the branches.

I'd like to be able to tell you that putting the cows in the yard to mow the grass was positive since they produce no emissions.  That, however, would be a lie!

Foul emissions - You must be careful in the back yard when walking.  It is like a mine field.

Once the backyard was done, I moved the fencing to the front yard and then moved the cows to the front to mow.  They especially like eating right near the road in the front as that is where most of the clover grows.

I watched them eat while sitting on the front porch.  As cars would pass, they would slow down and stare, at first not seeing the strand of electric fencing.  They would think the cows were out!  Once I have let the cows cycle through the back yard, the front yard and the side yard, I get on my mechanical mower to cut down the grass the cows didn't eat and to mulch up the leaves that have fallen.